Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on
Friday endorsed gay marriage, making her the first GOP member of
Congress to approve of such unions.
Ros-Lehtinen confirmed she supports gay
nuptials to gay weekly the Washington
Blade.
The congresswoman is the only
Republican to co-sponsor a bill which seeks to repeal the Defense of
Marriage Act (DOMA), which forbids federal agencies from recognizing
the legal marriages of gay and lesbian couples, making her support
something of a foregone conclusion.
“Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is a champion in
the fight for full LGBT equality,” said Michael Cole-Schwartz,
spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). “Her willingness to
be a leader in the Republican Party on LGBT issues, including
becoming the first Republican member of Congress to embrace marriage
equality, is opening the way for other Republican officials to speak
out.”
Ros-Lehtinen also told the paper that
she disagrees with presumptive GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney
on marriage equality but supports his campaign.
“Well I support him because of his
views on the business issues and the economy,” she said. “There
are a lot of issues in which I disagree with Mitt Romney, but there
are a lot of issues in which I disagree with members of my family.
But I love them all the same.”
(Related: Mitt
Romney's NAACP speech criticized by gay GOP group.)